Copper
by InTheCompanyOfDragons
Summary: Sam is struggling, and when Caleb is injured on a hunt, Sam is forced to come clean that he isn't as okay as everyone thought. Brotherhood AU by Ridley. Please review!


**Copper**

"Damn it Damien why would you do that?" Dean yelled. Sam and Dean had Caleb between them attempting to hold him up as they made their way back to the car.

"I was thinking that I wasn't about to let that bearwalker rip your fucking head off Deuce, especially since you already have a Yogi hang up." Dean wasn't afraid of much, but planes and bears were the kid's biggest phobias, and he was often made fun of for having such ridiculous fears. Caleb leaned against the side of the Impala using his hands and what was left of his over shirt to hold the blood in his body. He had three deep scratches running across his stomach, and they were bleeding profusely, and Caleb was having difficulty slowing down the bleeding. Caleb turned and saw Sam out of the corner of his eye staring hard at him, he seemed to be caught in some kind of daze, and something about it made Caleb's stomach flip. Dean noticed too, and walked up beside Sam.

"Hey Sammy? You okay kid?" Dean asked. Sam's head snapped up and he took a step back, away from Caleb.

"Yeah I'm fine… I'll drive back, you help Caleb." Sam got into the front seat and Dean shrugged his shoulders, he could help Caleb he didn't have to drive. Dean pushed Caleb into the backseat and slid in beside him, and pushed the shirt out of the way to inspect the wound. Caleb flinched as Dean prodded at it.

"Damn it Deuce your hands are fucking freezing… At least buy me dinner first…" Caleb complained.

"Shut up Damien, I am too busy trying to keep this red stuff inside your body to hold your God Damn hand."

"Your bedside manner sucks Deuce."

"C'mon, do you remember how we were raised? On the farm if bones weren't broken, blood wasn't gushing and no one was possessed, nobody gave a rats ass." Caleb laughed.

"Well, accept for the Runt you mean, we always got in trouble for hurting his feelings, and we were always taking hits for him." Dean smirked and looked at his brother expecting a snappy retort, but Sam said nothing, he just kept his eyes on the road, and they were wide and Sam was breathing rapidly.

"Sammy? Are you with us?" Dean met Sam's eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Yeah I'm here Dean, we'll be at the motel in two minutes." Sam said quietly.

"Okay, then we get to stitch you up Damien."

"You mean Sam gets to stitch me up, he is better at it then you."

"I'm not stitching you up Caleb…" Sam said.

"Why not? Scars are cool, but I also do not want to look like Frankenstein either, you and your perfectionist ways always leave small even stitches, your big brother here is a butcher in comparison." Sam put the car in park as he pulled into a parking spot at the motel and turned around to face Dean and Caleb but kept his eyes downcast.

"My hands aren't exactly steady right now." Dean frowned, but watched as Sam had a slight shake running through his body.

"What the hell is going on Sammy?" Sam met his brother's eyes but they revealed nothing.

"I won't lie to you okay? But let's get Caleb fixed first, then we can deal with me okay?"

"Are you hurt?" Caleb asked. Injured or not, he was still the Knight, and the Guardian and Scholar always came first.

"No, I'm not hurt, we will talk about this later okay, just let Dean stitch you up." Caleb and Dean looked at each other, Sam had betrayed them a lot over the past couple years, and that trust was something that was slowly being gained back, but it was hard when the person who betrayed you was your little brother, or the kid who you had once thought could do no wrong, but they were The Triad, and they had to trust each other's judgment above all else.

"Alright let's get Caleb fixed up, the rest can wait." Dean said, Sam nodded and helped Dean maneuver Caleb into the room and set up the first aid station, before excusing himself to grab the bags from the car, leaving Dean and Caleb alone. Dean stared at the door for a second after Sam walked out before sighing and getting back to work on Caleb.

"You okay Deuce?"

"I'm not the one who got clawed up by an evil bear." Dean said, trying to deflect the conversation away from what he knew was coming, but Caleb was persistent and stubborn.

"You know what I mean, you are in a typical Dean Winchester big brother panic right now." Dean sighed, and continued to stitch up his friend, while searching for something to say.

"Do you trust him?" Dean asked. "After all that had happened, do you actually think he will tell me the truth?"

"Deuce… Sam screwed up, he let the power go to his head and he lost his focus, but you also need to remember that he genuinely thought he was doing the right thing. He drank demon blood, and he played his role in starting the apocalypse, but he also kept you out of the loop because he didn't want you to get hurt. Now he knows that keeping us in the dark won't keep his family safe, he grew up. He ain't a kid anymore."

"That doesn't really answer the question Damien…" Caleb laughed.

"I would trust Sam with my life, and more importantly I trust him with yours, and I know that he will never make the same mistake again. When he comes back, he will tell us what's going on, I have no doubt about it." Dean smiled, yeah he had come to the same conclusion, Sam had grown up a lot in the last little while, and he had done what he could to earn back his brothers trust.

"You know just because you trust Sam with my life, doesn't mean you can check out on me right?"

"I'm not going anywhere you idiot, but I wasn't gonna let you piss your pants when that bearwalker came running at you either." Dean groaned.

"Dude, I am not scared of bears anymore…"

"I'm psychic remember? You can't lie to me." Dean grumbled. "Don't worry Dean, I'll protect you." Caleb said jokingly, and Dean looked at his friend with a smile. Normally he would just punch Caleb and tell him to shut up, but instead he took advantage of the moment.

"I know you will." Dean jumped as the door shut behind him and Sam threw their bags on the bed and walked over with coffee in his hands.

"How is it that you both are always accusing me of being a girl, and yet I leave for five minutes and you two start getting all gushy?"

"We haven't slept for two days and I am in pain, doesn't count Runt." Sam snorted.

"Whatever, here coffee." Sam said passing the cups to the two other hunters.

"Thanks Sammy." Dean said watching Sam, some colour had returned to his face and he wasn't shaking anymore.

"So…." Caleb said. "You gonna tell us now?" Sam sighed and put his coffee down, and ran his hand through his long hair.

"It was all the blood."

"Blood? C'mon dude, we've seen worse then that. Since when do you get queasy around this kinda stuff? You've been stitching us up since you were like twelve." Dean asked.

"Dean… if it was your blood I would have been fine… if it was anyone else's blood I would have been okay… but Caleb's… its different…" The room was quiet for a minute as they all were forced to realize something everyone had spent years trying not to admit. They all had tried to deny Caleb's heritage, but they all knew the truth anyway even if they never said it out loud.

"So it's your demon blood thing… the shaking and everything, it was because I was giving you cravings?" Sam's eyes went wide.

"No! I swear it wasn't like that! I just… I just…" Dean reached a hand out and placed it on Sam's shoulder, and Sam winced as if he was afraid Dean was going to hurt him.

"It's okay little brother, you did the right thing, is it still bothering you now?"

"Not anymore then usual… it just caught me off guard that's all, I've never noticed before… it is faint enough that when I was taking demon blood, I didn't even notice, but when I saw the blood back in the woods, it just made me feel… off again."

"Okay, well guess you won't be stitching me up for awhile Runt."

"I'll be fine next time Caleb, like I said it just caught me off guard, it wasn't like I wanted to sink my teeth into your neck." Caleb laughed.

"What the hell is so funny Damien?" Dean asked.

"Nothing… strange lives we lead, being happy Sammy didn't want to drink me, totally normal."

"Not helping." Dean ground out.

"It's fine Dean… I'm fine now."

"Are you sure? Or did this set something off inside you?" Sam eyes went dark.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I just mean this didn't make the problem come back right? Like you don't feel the need to go out and bag yourself a demon or anything right?" Sam stood up and began to pace the room like a caged animal.

"It doesn't just turn on like that…" Sam said quietly.

"Well that's good to hear, I'm gonna go shower." Dean stood up and turned his back when he heard his brother's voice again.

"Because it never turns off Dean… ever…" Dean turned back around and Caleb pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"You're telling me, that right now after everything…. You still want it?" Caleb asked, he wasn't trying to sound mean, but he found that hard to believe.

"Dean, do you remember when you locked me in the panic room at Bobby's, and I told you I wasn't a junkie? And you started talking about how strung out I was? You planned this crazy intervention and at the time, I though you were insane, but now I realize you aren't, you were right. So in laments terms, I kicked the habit, but I still have the same cravings for it, and I have to make a conscience decision everyday not to go looking for it." Dean stood there for minute watching his brother, before grabbing his coat off of the chair.

"I'm gonna go get us something to eat."

"Dean… please don't walk away."

"I need to think…" Dean slammed the door, and Sam punched the wall.

"Damn it…"

"Sam calm down it's okay."

"No it isn't… now he is pissed at me…I was just trying to be fucking honest with him."

"No he isn't Runt, he is pissed at himself… I am pissed at myself too, we should have noticed you were struggling with this, we should have known it wasn't enough to just drain it out of your system, I mean it's in your blood…" Sam sighed and sat down on the bed opposite of Caleb.

"I think that is part of the reason your blood seems so strong to me… that connection to Azazel, it's like some weird pulse that is calling me to it."

"That could be it, or you could just be having a bad day… but it doesn't matter, you resisted."

"This time…"

"Give yourself some credit kiddo, you have been on a lot of demon hunts over the last little while, did you slip up?"

"No…"

"Did a part of you want to?" Sam watched Caleb with tears in his eyes.

"Every once in awhile I feel a gnawing feeling in my stomach, and I can feel my heart rate speed up, and when I kill a demon, it takes everything in me to pull myself away from the blood."

"But you do, every time that's what is important."

"And what happens when the day comes that I'm not strong enough to resist it?"

"Then we will help you." Sam turned around and saw his brother standing in the doorway. "I'm sorry that I didn't know this was still hurting you Sammy, hell maybe I didn't want to see it, but if the day comes when you aren't strong enough to resist, I will pull you back, so will Caleb."

"Damn right I will." Caleb said. "That's what family does."

"I don't want you to have to watch me all the time, waiting for me to mess up."

"I won't be watching you Sammy." Dean said. "Because if the day comes when it gets too hard, I know you are going to tell one of us. Right?" Sam smiled.

"Yeah, I will I promise."

"Alright so scale of one to ten, how bad is it right now?" Sam sighed.

"Five? But that is only because of Caleb's blood being all over the place, and it is under control, I'm not gonna go looking for anything."

"Alright, time to eat then, us men are gonna eat burgers, your salad is in the bag Samantha."

"You're a dick…"

"Guilty, but hey it's my job, I'm your brother."

"Then what's his excuse?" Sam nodded towards Caleb.

"Hey I had to play Uncle and nanny when you two were kids, I haven't tortured you nearly enough to make up for that." Sam laughed.

"Whoever said you can't pick your family, was obviously an idiot, I'd say we did alright." Sam said.

"We didn't choose each other, we were brought together by something a lot stronger then blood, and I will take our little family, over any apple pie life any day, cursed and all." Dean said.

"You two are girls…" Caleb said. "But I guess I could have ended up with worse sisters."

"Fuck you Caleb." Sam said, and the three men ate their food, enjoying each others company, choosing to forget about the impending apocalypse, and each others problems for just one night, preferring to think of better things, about better times, with their interesting little family.


End file.
